Christopher Newman

Born in San Francisco, California, Christopher Newman was educated in Silicon Valley schools and holds a BA in Literature from the University of California at Santa Cruz as well as an MFA in Creative Writing from San Diego State University. He traveled overland from Europe across the Asian subcontinent to Singapore alone in his late teens and before he was 21 had worked for a year aboard a super-tanker plying trade between the Persian Gulf and ports around the Pacific rim, an adventure detailed in his novel, Found at Sea: Pete O'Brien, the Early Years. He wrote the first draft of his third published novel, Manana Man, while in residence in Cali, Colombia his senior year in college and at 27 moved to New York City where the Random House imprint Fawcett Gold Medal published his first Joe Dante novel, Midtown South. When that title met with considerable commercial success, his publisher convinced him to turn his protagonist into a series character. Eight more Joe Dante novels followed, several making various national best seller lists. Midtown North, published in 1991, was nominated for an Edgar Allan Poe Award by the Mystery Writers of America. Chains of Command, left unfinished at the time of best-selling author William Caunitz' death in 1998, was completed by Mr. Newman at the estate's request. It was named a 1999 New York Times Notable Book of the Year.

Mr. Newman currently splits his time between California and Lexington, KY, where he also has been publishing an ever-growing number of mad-cap non-crime novels under his Pete O'Brien pseudonym. All of those books are also available from Amazon.